How ____ Sees Me

I don't care how anyone sees me.  I'd just like them to see me.  --Christine Haskins

So there is this format that has taken over Facebook.  It's a black slide that has six squares.  It has a different square for the different people who may judge your profession.  "How my students see me", "how my parents see me", "how society sees me", "how I see myself", and then it ends with "what I really do."  I've seen it for teachers, Occupy protesters, ministers, teenagers, Unitarians, etc.  I've even seen one about surrealists (they were all surreal) and a Meme one (which was all about the absurdity of the format itself).

I'm just feeling out my soapbox and wanted to comment.

If all those people see you so terribly differently, doesn't that say something?  They can't all be right!  They all are seeing it through their own goggles.  And they may not be seeing you that way at all, but it is the projection of how you think they are seeing you.  IT DOESN'T MATTER.  It makes absolutely no difference how they see you and what judgements they put on you.  It only matters how you see yourself and that you have a few people in your world who see all of you. 

And, in all the concepts, the final square was "how I see myself" and it is a very dull, unmotivating, unflattering picture.  For ministers, it is someone buried in post it notes.  For Unitarians, it is people sitting around drinking coffee.  For teachers, it is a lion tamer.  They all seem to have a "yeah, my real life sucks" quality about them.  It's just a clever way to whine.  And it's not that clever anymore because you're all doing it. 

...and she steps off the soapbox.

My wish is that you all see me in a complete, positive light.  And that I continue find myself enough to see that same complete, positive light myself.